


The Perfect Gift

by aj_linguistik



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthday, Eugeo's Birthday, Gen, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:46:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23569285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik
Summary: It's Eugeo's first birthday in the real world! Kirito would like to give him something, but his difficulty is that Eugeo sticks to him like glue. So, he opts for a peculiar gift and hopes that it's just as meaningful as anything he might buy him from a store.
Relationships: Eugeo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito
Comments: 4
Kudos: 89





	The Perfect Gift

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This idea came from someone who doesn't even like SAO. Whaat??? Okay, long story short, I infodump to my wonderful friend and she loves Eugeo and made a suggestion a while back. I thought I'd turn that suggestion into a one-shot for Eugeo's birthday. It's short but I hope it's sweet.

These artificial bodies that Rath had made were astounding pieces of machinery, but in the end, they still weren’t fully human. That much was painfully made aware when Alice would pull out a charger and plug herself into the wall. It was somewhat laughable—she’d gone from a powerful Integrity Knight to someone who could be conquered easily if her battery power ran out. Alice adapted to it better than Eugeo, though. While Alice had been figuring herself out for a while starting with her breaking of the seal in the Underworld, Eugeo was still new to all of this information.

He’d been incredibly confused when he’d woken up in the real world, from what Kikuoka and Higa had told me. Since he’d died in the Underworld, he hadn’t expected to open his eyes again in a different world. He’d at first, unsurprisingly, presumed he’d awoken in the afterlife, but after a bit of pained explanation, he was somewhat up to speed with what had happened. This was my world—the world I’d come from before waking up and running into him in the forest so long ago. He’d waited by my bedside for me to wake up and return to this world, curious for more answers than I’d expected.

Watching the two of them adapt to my world was equal parts enjoyable and terrifying. Alice was Alice, no matter where she was. Her strong confidence was unwavering before reporters and people on the street who approached her without permission. Eugeo, though, seemed to struggle between what he was used to and fitting into the social norms of modern Japan. He stuck to me like glue, which I didn’t mind. But that made it very difficult to work on a present for his birthday without getting caught.

“April?” he repeated. “The tenth? As in tomorrow?”

I nodded and smiled.

“That’s what we call our fourth month in the language of the sacred arts,” I said, teasingly poking him in the side.

He frowned at me rather intently.

“I know it’s called English now, Kirito,” he said.

I grinned at him.

“And yet, you still haven’t figured out my name isn’t Kirito,” I said. “It’s Kazuto. Not that I mind you calling me Kirito.”

He looked even more irritated than before. The fine-tuned facial expressions often had me doubting that Eugeo was anything but a real human being. Very little gave away that his body was a robot that housed his lightcube. I suppose the charging port on his leg or lack of bathroom breaks gave it away, but otherwise, no one would think twice about it if they looked at him. But there were certain things that Eugeo lacked that he was very unused to—and that led me up to his birthday surprise.

“But, yeah,” I said. “We’ll keep celebrating your birthday on the tenth day of the fourth month.”

Eugeo hummed and tilted his head.

“So, then, when’s your birthday?” he asked.

I smiled.

“Seventh day of the tenth month,” I said. “Not for a while.”

He hummed, saying nothing. I turned back to my computer and typed in a few more variables. Getting Eugeo something was incredibly difficult with him always following me around like a lost puppy, but I’d finally settled on this as a birthday gift. I was finishing up a bit of coding that would mimic the tasting engine in Seed VR worlds. Eugeo couldn’t really eat anything, being a robot—his energy all came from a battery. He felt no hunger and had no reason to eat. But I would see him eyeballing food curiously all of the time. So, for his birthday, the plan was to implement this code and allow him to taste food for the first time in the real world.

“What does all of that in your Stacia window mean?” he asked.

I laughed.

“It’s a monitor,” I said. “It’s a bunch of data. Numbers and things. I can use the data to make things happen inside of a computer. Just like how people used data to make you.”

Eugeo frowned and scratched his head. He probably didn’t like being reminded that humans in my world had created his birth world and him using code and a process to copy human souls. I suppose if I had learned that I was a box filled with photons I would be weirded out by that, too. I smiled over at him. He awkwardly laughed.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s very overwhelming still. I know it’s been a while, but…hey! Wait a minute! We passed your birthday! And you said nothing!”

I turned back to my computer.

“Oops,” I said.

“Kirito!”

“Anyways, I think we should log on now,” I said. “Alice and Asuna are probably waiting for us to log in. They wanted to clear a big quest today, if you’re up for it. It’s like Alice’s birthday party.”

I slipped out of my computer chair and hurried over to the bed to slip my Amusphere on. Eugeo gave me a sharp look, but he followed me over and laid down next to me to slip his on as well. I was grateful that he’d figured this all out. I loved being able to play games with him in the real world and fight by his side without the danger and fear of losing him again. He slipped his hand into mine and we nodded at each other before diving.

“Link Start!”

* * *

I only had to keep him occupied for as long as he was awake. Despite not needing to sleep, both he and Alice did still fall asleep quite naturally. I suppose it was out of habit. When they felt tired and expended about a day’s worth of energy, they would start to doze off. Eugeo wound up passed out on my bed without even making it out of the room to go sleep in his own bed. I chuckled and took the opportunity to work more on his program.

It was already his birthday by the time I put the finishing touches on it. I set the computer to upload the new program to his system overnight while we slept, and then turned the display off to get rid of the bright light. I went over to the bed and properly tucked him into it, chuckling. Smiling, I laid down beside him and gazed at his angelic sleeping face until my eyelids slipped closed.

We woke up awkwardly tangled up with each other. Eugeo ended up waking me up by trying to slip out of my arms. I blinked at him and felt my cheeks redden a little. I shook it off with a wide grin.

“Happy birthday, you!” I said.

I reached up and tousled his hair.

“Kirito!” he exclaimed.

I glanced over at my computer and hummed. I rolled out of bed and hurried over to check on it. When the monitor flicked back on, I grinned and whirled back around to Eugeo. Everything was ready. All it needed was a test run. I held my hand out to him.

“I’ve got a fun surprise for you,” I said.

Eugeo raised his eyebrows but didn’t question it. I hurried him downstairs and sat him down at the breakfast table. I pulled out some ingredients and started making breakfast. He leaned on the table, patiently waiting as he always did. He kept his eyes on what I was doing, still curious about cooking in Japan. His eyes widened when he realized what I was doing, though.

“Um, Kirito, you’ve made a bit too much for just you,” he said.

I grinned at him and set a plate of breakfast down in front of him. I handed him a fork. He gave me a weird look.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” he said.

I shook my head.

“No, I tested a program out,” I said. “I want you to try to eat it.”

He gave me another odd look. We both probably had the same thought—where on earth would the food go if he did eat it. I quickly reassured him I’d figure out if there was a way to deal with that without making him feel awkward or have food just sitting inside of a robot body with no way to remove it to keep it from rotting. He picked up the fork and stared down at the food.

“Alright,” he said. “Here goes.”

Eugeo scooped up some of the food onto his fork and held it up to his mouth. I wondered what he must be thinking. He stared down at the food for a moment, as if wondering if I was pulling his leg, but then he slipped it into his mouth and closed his eyes, chewing. I patiently waited for his reaction. I silently prayed that my efforts were successful enough. Eugeo’s eyes snapped open. He made a face that suggested if he could cry, he might.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just been so long since I’ve tasted anything…”

His eyes glistened a bit. I thought for a second they might actually be moist with tears.

“Thank you…” he said.

I smiled at him. He got out of his chair and came over to my side of the table to wrap his arms around me. I hugged him back and ruffled his hair again.

“What am I going to do with you?” I said, chuckling.

He pulled away from me and flashed me a joy-filled smile.

“You’re going to take me around and let me try all sorts of food from your country!” he said.

I chuckled.

“Is that what the birthday boy wants?” I said.

He nodded.

“It’s a date, then!” I said.

As he finished up enjoying his breakfast, I thought to myself that I had never been more excited to travel around and watch someone eat. But I think the joy of it for me was knowing that this meant so much to him. Eugeo didn’t say it, though I knew from the look on his face—this simple program made him feel the slightest bit more human. It might have seemed like a peculiar gift, but for Eugeo…

…it was the perfect one.


End file.
